The Coming Golden Age of Open Educational Simulations
Back in 2000, I was part of a team that was writing a self-paced simulation-based curriculum for Columbia University.
We got seven or so courses done, beautiful things, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stuff on steroids, with video conversations, just-in-time learning support, forking paths, outcomes-based assessment and evaluation (Roger Schank, our fearless leader, preferred the term “merit badge” based evaluation). Scenarios were careful constructed to target specific skills, and experts would deliver instruction at point of failure via hundreds of short video clips.
I really can’t describe how beautiful these things were — some of the best CBT ever designed. And the results, in retention, engagement, and transfer blew other methods out of the water.
